Wireless communication networks are increasingly using wireless location technologies to determine the locations of mobile stations they serve. As a result, there is an increasing interest in developing location-based services and applications, i.e., applications that make use of mobile station location information. These location-based applications may simply track or monitor the locations of mobile stations, or they may provide information or services to mobile stations based on their locations. Such location-based applications may be internal to the wireless communication network, or they may be third-party applications that obtain the locations of mobile stations from a location server or other entity in the wireless communication network. The Location Inter-operability Forum (LIF) has developed the “Mobile Location Protocol Specification” (version 3.0.0 published on Jun. 6, 2002), which defines one access method that allows applications to obtain mobile station location information from a wireless network.
However, location of a mobile station (and client stations in general) is a sensitive piece of information, and releasing it to random entities might pose security and privacy risks. The ability for a user to find others at any time is a powerful utility, but the ability for others to find the user at any time may be a rather uncomfortable notion for the user. People may not want to be stalked by strangers, suffocated by friends and family, or always locatable by business associates, for example.
Many users may fear total surveillance. At times people may not want to be located, or may want to restrict the accuracy at which they can be located. Thus, it may be desirable to provide location privacy options for a user.